Joelly specifically said her hotel was ON bd St Michel near bd St Germain. The St Michel stop would be the closest RER stop.

Of course there is no law that you do anything! :) It just so happened that all of my accommodation happened to have the Gare du Nord as its closest RER station.

Yes, and my reply applies not only to joellynm's situation, but to anyone whose hotel is within a few hundred meters of an RER stop. All other things being equal, one should always stay where the transportation is easiest. The RATP offers very detailed maps, right down to which side of the street the Métro entrance is on, at

http://www.citefutee.com/orienter/tous_plans_pdf.php

Press <b>Plans de quartier de Paris</b>, highlight the stop near your hotel on the dropdown menus, and press <b>GO</b>

If you can't find the <b>GO</b> button, you might as well try <b>OK</b> ;-)

Robespiere has a great idea there. I have taken the RER to the Luxembourg Gardens and pulled my suitcase to rue Monge to my hotel. The walk is not that far and after sitting 8 hours in an airplane it felt good to strech my legs.

Another thought on that photo for your Carte Orange; if you have a digital camera, have someone take a picture of you and print a small one off on your computer printer at home and paste it on your pass when you get to Paris. I have found that a picture like you passport photo only a little smaller works well.

Robespierre, the website you suggested is terrific. Thanks for sharing. Deborah

Given where you say you are staying it definitly makes the most sense to take the RER. The Place St Mich stop is only a couple of blocks from your hotel. There is no luggage issue getting on the RER as the airport is the first stop. You'll get a seat. You will not have to walk through the metro. You will not have to make any connections. The only thing that would be &quot;easier&quot; would be a taxi and if there are two of you the price difference will be less than 16&euro; for the RER versus probably 45&euro; for a taxi. And a taxi would probably take longer.

Which brings us full circle to the Carte Orange. I suggest you buy one for Zones 1-2 (or maybe 1-5, see below) as soon as you arrive. It will be valid for the Monday before you arrived through Sunday. Don't put off getting it, because they aren't sold on Thursday at all.

Then see if you can buy a supplement to get you from CDG (Zone 5) to Zone 2, where your CO is valid. I have been told that the supplements are no longer being sold, but I haven't verified this; you can confirm it on the spot.

If you <u>are</u> going to be charged full fare from CDG to Paris, you might as well get a CO for Zones 1-5, so your round trip from the airport is included (as is Versailles, which is in Zone 4). The additional zones will cost you &euro;14.80, which compares favorably with the &euro;16 tariff for the round trip bought separately. But note that this relationship only holds if you are returning to CDG no later than Sunday. If you are staying through Monday, you can go through the standard math to determine if another Carte Orange, daily Mobilis cards, or single tickets is more economical.

Then move your trousers to the lower peg, AFTER you have written your letter home.......

Yes, Robespierre, I thought about that after I had posted a while ago.. if the trip is only within the validity of the CO, good to buy a zone 1-5 (I never heard anything about supplements available). Now, tell me something.. I took the Orlyval to Antony, and then when I put my RER ticket through, I noticed a sign that said &quot;CARTE ORANGE NON VALABLE&quot;.. wouldn't you be out of luck? (This is coming from Orly, not CDG, so this is a sort of tangent).

Yeah - Orly has its own rules to maximize the wealth extracted from visitors. :-(

But the strange thing is that the Orlyval was free for me.. I didn't have to use my ticket until I got to Antony. I thought that was weird. I thought it was an extra charge.

Consider using a private shuttle to get into the city from the airport. I always use PariShuttle.com. They are great. Dealing with the RER is a real pain when you have luggage and it's not the most relaxing way to begin your vacation! The cost of the shuttle is only about $20/person.

Thanks to all for their great suggestions. We just returned from France and had a marvelous time! We actually wound up taking the RER from CDG into Paris, and despite a minor glitch (ticket machines that didn't work, so we had to wait in a long line to buy a ticket), it was smooth sailing into Paris and it only cost us 7 euro each! We got off at Luxembourg which was a little further from our hotel than the St. Michel stop, but we needed the walk after that long flight. Also took the RER to Orly to pick up our rental car, which was a little trickier (some trains don't go all the way--you have to know which ones do--we found out the hard way. But we made it. Public transportation is the way to go in Paris in my opinion. Thanks again all,
I'll post some comments and other suggestions for travel in France in another post.